


Aroma of Flea

by Kaibutsu_of_Shinjuku (Lightningpelt)



Category: Durarara!!
Genre: Chocolate Shop AU, Dorks, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-15
Updated: 2016-04-15
Packaged: 2018-06-02 08:00:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,444
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6558568
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lightningpelt/pseuds/Kaibutsu_of_Shinjuku
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><i>Written for Shizaya Week Day 2: <del>Christmas/</del>Valentine's </i> </p><p>It all started with a peculiar scent—the scent of chocolate.<br/>AKA the Chocolate Shop!AU</p>
            </blockquote>





	Aroma of Flea

**Author's Note:**

> Started writing this for V-Day, finished it for Shizaya Week. Shizuo's propensity for sweets will never fail to amuse me. 
> 
> Also, do you know how much time I spent researching Japanese chocolate prices? I probably just could have guestimated but damnit authenticity is important.

One if the unequivocally truths in the world was that Izaya Orihara _stank_. 

The flea reeked both metaphorically and--for one Shizuo Heiwajima—literally. The blonde could smell his classmate half a building away—if not clear across the campus. Raijin Academy could only hope there were enough obstacles between them to keep a fight from breaking out... which it inevitably did, anyway. 

"I can't stand your stench for one more damn minute!!" 

Izaya dodged the flung desk expertly, then scampered off down the hallway with a very furious Shizuo on his tail. It was ordinary—expected; comfortable. 

Understandably, Shizuo didn't know how to react when a very important piece of that picture _changed_. 

Izaya Orihara was standing right in front of him—that's what his eyes told him. His nose, however, wasn't so certain. 

The flea smelled... _nice_. 

Shizuo couldn't exactly place the scent (he knew it wasn't a perfume or anything like that; he hated that sort of thing) but it smelled _pleasant_. And that threw him into the deepest sort of confusion attainable by a simple human brain. 

In the instance at hand, Izaya hadn't noticed him—there was that small mercy, at least. If he had, Shizuo would have had no choice but to attack, if only for appearances. But he really did hate violence, and for once Izaya's scent wasn't setting him off. So, for the time being, he sat brooding about the why of that fact. 

Izaya's languid body language was normal; Izaya's clipped, slimy tone was normal as he chatted with a classmate; Izaya's glinting sorrel eyes were normal. The only thing that was different was his scent, but that was enough. 

It was like that the next day, too, and the day after that. Situations that would have resulted in all out brawls ended, instead, with Shizuo slinking off in utter confusion. It took Shinra, through a very reasonable question as they prepared to leave for home, to move him to some form of action. 

"Are you feeling okay, Shizu-kun?" 

Then a chair was flying; Shizuo roared something unintelligible and furious as Shinra, with a yelp, dove for cover. Shizuo stormed from the room, leaving silence save for the creaking of broken plaster in his wake. 

"Damn flea...!" he raged quietly, students ducking and dodging out of his path. "I'll track him down and _beat_ the answer out of him!" 

Despite the change in Izaya's scent, it was still a crystal clear calling card for Shizuo. But, as he followed it off campus and onto Sunshine street, the newness about it grew so strong it began to drown the familiar flea-stench altogether. Shizuo grew more and more agitated with the feeling that he should _know_ the strange scent that was now powerful enough to discern from Izaya's own. 

Then he rounded the corner, and all it made sense. 

_Chocolate._

A chocolate shop—a very, very _quality_ chocolate shop—reared up in front of him. He had stared into its windows many times, wondering but never finding out what chocolate that ran 1600¥ for a four piece box tasted like. He swiped his tongue subconsciously over his lips, tasting only the smoke of his last cigarette. 

And there was Izaya. 

The flea looked different, to say the least, clad as he was in a pressed white shirt and jet black tie. He was smiling benignly at the customer he was helping, and Shizuo had the strongest urge to warn the young boy that he was about to be taken for untold sums of money. 

The door opened and Shizuo was assaulted by a flood of that _scent_ —not Izaya with a flavoring of chocolate, this time, but overpowering chocolate laced with a hint of Izaya. 

It smelled incredibly nice. 

"Shizu-kun!" 

Shizuo bristled, startled and embarrassed to be caught so unawares. Shinra looked equally surprised to have encountered him. 

"Izaya works here?" the blonde asked bluntly, for lack of anything else to say. Shinra blinked in surprise. 

"Yeah, he just started," he replied, then clasped his hands together. "Please refrain from destroying it until I get some chocolate!" he shouted, then dashed in through the door. Shizuo stared after him, annoyed but not strongly enough to make him snap. 

"Stupid Shinra..." 

He watched as their mutual classmate greeted Izaya; leaned obnoxiously over the counter. Izaya smiled tolerantly even as he shoved him back by the forehead. The observer could see Izaya speaking calmly and slowly; Shinra chattering in his usual fashion. And, the next time the door opened, that maddeningly appealing scent dragged him in over the threshold. 

"... can't give you a discount, Shinra." Izaya's voice hit him first. "Why are you even _buying_ chocolate?" 

"Because I have a sweetheart, you know!" Shinra replied tersely. "C'mon, Izaya! No _way_ can I afford it if you don't help me out!" 

"Your 'sweetheart,' if you can call her that, can't even _eat_ chocolate," Izaya replied tersely, and Shizuo wondered what on _earth_ he could mean by that. 

Shinra seemed to understand perfectly, and objected, "It's the gesture of the thing, Izaya, the gesture!" 

Izaya _had_ to have noticed the blonde standing awkwardly by the door, but he didn't acknowledged him with so much as a glance. Shizuo couldn't figure out why, but he wasn't looking forward to the inevitable snapping that would happen when Izaya finally looked at him, so he did nothing to hasten it. 

"Gesture or otherwise, it's futile," Izaya sighed, in a tone that was somehow indulgent and demeaning at the same time. "C'mon, Shinra. You should be buying chocolate for _me_ , instead." 

Shizuo _almost_ laughed aloud at that. He had heard Shinra and Izaya quipping back and forth at one another, but he had usually lost his temper long before things progressed to such a point. It was almost... endearing. 

Then Izaya himself was laughing. "Fine, fine," he relented, and Shinra's pleading, pouty face lifted into radiant joy. "50%. But you owe me—big time." 

"You're the best, Izaya!" 

"I try," was the flea's cordial response, and at last his gaze fell on Shizuo. The blonde felt his heart jump into his throat, muscles tensing in anticipation of that snapping, but it never came. "I'm fairly certain you're one of the only ones who believes it, though." 

"I certainly don't," Shizuo growled, with a pretense of anger in his voice. But it was more out of obligation than anything, and he continued to breathe the chocolate scent calmly. 

Shinra shot him a curious glance, but Izaya only smiled condescendingly—the expression made rage stir vaguely in Shizuo's stomach, but it was muted and sluggish. 

"Alright—the twenty-piece heart, you said?" Izaya asked, redirecting his attention to Shinra. The doctor nodded. 

"Perfect! Oh Izaya, that'll be perfect!" 

The information-broker-turned-chocolate-dealer spun, grabbing an impressive-looking heart box off the shelf behind him. Shizuo didn't particularly want to see the price tag, but he was curious all the same and took a sideways step closer to the register. 

"Aah, could you go grab me one of those little kitten-patterned boxes off the shelf?" Izaya asked Shinra, pointing. "I forgot that someone asked me to set one aside." 

"Sure!" the doctor chirped willingly, trotting off to do as he was bid. But as soon as his back was turned, Izaya's credit card came spinning out of his pocket and slicing through the card reader. When he caught Shizuo staring, he held a playful finger to his lips. 

_What the hell...?_ Shizuo barely had time to question it before Shinra had returned, kitten box in hand. Izaya thanked him, stashed it back on the counter behind him, and then tapped rapidly at his computer screen. 

"There!" he announced grandly. "Sing my praises if you wish—I just knocked 60 percent off it for you." 

"Aah, Izaya, you're the greatest!" Shinra gushed, then added, concerned, "You won't get in trouble for doing that?" 

"They'll never find out," Izaya promised, drawing and invisible x across his chest. Then he added, teasingly, "I have my ways, Shinra. Have faith." 

The doctor's expression brightened, and he gave Izaya a radiant smile. "Thank you, Izaya!" 

For a moment, Shizuo was earnestly confused about what he had just witnessed. But slowly the pieces fell into place, and he was left with a startling picture. When Shinra had left with a cheerful farewell, heart box in hand, he remained, staring at Izaya. 

"What?" the flea asked, his voice itself slimy. "Don't look at me with those big, confused puppy-dog eyes, Shizu-chan. They're anything but charming to me." 

"... You just paid for his chocolate," Shizuo pointed out, and Izaya shrugged. 

"The kid thinks I'm a god. Occasionally I have to perform a few magic tricks to keep up the image." 

"That's bullshit," Shizuo growled, and Izaya shrugged. 

"Think what you want. Now he owes me, too—I don't have a selfless bone in my body, Shizu-chan. You should know that." 

Shizuo felt distain welling up in his stomach, although it wasn't as violent as his usual feelings regarding the flea. "You're a piece of shit, you know that?" 

"Or, according to some, I'm 'the best,'" Izaya quipped, then leaned over the counter. "Now c'mon—aren't you going to knock this building down? Aren't you just _itching_ to come at me? I can't figure out why you haven't done it so far. For Shinra's sake, perhaps? How nauseatingly sweet." 

But even in the face of Izaya's chattering, Shizuo wasn't poised to fly off the handle. He briefly considered faking a rage—he did, honestly, want to choke the life out of his classmate—but in the end he decided that he should take what control he could get as a blessing. So he reached up and grabbed the back of his neck, groaning, "What a pain..." under his breath. 

"Oh?" Izaya asked, then blinked in surprise as Shizuo turned toward the door. 

"You're shit, Flea," the blonde tossed over his shoulder. "But it wouldn't do to wreck all this chocolate on account of trash like you." 

As soon as he was out in the open air, the scent of chocolate fading to just a whiff, he thought that the expected snapping might be closer than he had thought. But he resisted the urge to turn back, even as his teeth ground involuntarily, and he forced his feet to carry him away down the street.

... ... ... 

Izaya—with his strange, chocolatey flea-scent—arrived at school the next day looking sinfully pleased with himself. Shizuo could only wonder why, but a large part of him simply didn't want to know.

The majority of him definitely didn't trust the box of chocolate on his desk. 

"Go on, Shizu-chan," Izaya invited, when he came upon the blonde staring critically at his gift. "It's not poisoned, or even drugged in the slightest. It's just an ordinary 'Thank You.' I was working on something... on the side, you see, with the owner of that shop—if you'd gone and destroyed it yesterday, I'd be out quite a bit of hard work and preparation." 

"Well if I'd known that, I wouldn't have _tried_ to hold back," Shizuo growled. 

"Regardless, you did, and I appreciate it," Izaya said flippantly. "Hence the chocolate. I know you have a sweet-tooth, Shizu-chan; I know everything I need to know about you. Though I am still trying to guess why you've been so much more docile than usual. Care to enlighten me?" When Shizuo didn't reply, he looked a bit disgruntled. "Well, one other thing I know is that this is the last time I try to be civil with a beast like you!" And he stalked off, grinning as if he had somehow won a confrontation that hadn't exactly happened. 

Shizuo, for his part, hadn't been trying to annoy Izaya. He was simply staring at the chocolate box, trying to figure out what to make of it. "Hey." 

Izaya paused; turned. "Yes, Shizu-chan?" he hissed, and the blonde narrowed his eyes. 

"You smell good," he said bluntly, and Izaya's eyebrows shot up, lip curling slightly. "That's the difference, lately. You smell like chocolate." 

"That was the secret of getting you to leave me alone all along?" Izaya asked incredulously. "You're even more simplistic than I thought." 

"So as soon as you quit that damn job," Shizuo continued, feeling anger rise up in him, "you can count on me coming after you again." As Izaya was drawing breath to reply, though, he continued, lifting the box of chocolates and giving it a shake. "Until then, thanks for these." 

Izaya's expression melted into a twisted grin. "You're welcome, Shizu-chan."

... ... ... 

"Do you remember the very first time I gave you a box of chocolates, way back at Raijin?"

Shizuo made a soft sound of agreement. "How the hell could I forget that? Best damn chocolate I'd ever eaten. I fell in love with you because of that chocolate." 

"Not because of my charming personality or pretty face?" Izaya asked pensively, feeling the chest he was lying on heave with a faint chuckle. "You wound me, Shizu-chan." 

"You're anything but cute and cuddly, Flea," Shizuo scoffed. "Now give me another one or I'm going to throw you off." 

Izaya reached obligingly over to the box sitting on the bedside table, picking up a perfectly smooth piece of chocolate and placing it on Shizuo's waiting tongue. The blonde closed his eyes, humming appreciatively as it melted in his mouth. 

"You're so damn cute when you act all tame," Izaya purred, and Shizuo opened one eye. 

"'Tame?' Don't be stupid." 

"Domesticated?" Izaya guessed helpfully, then gave a soft, delighted cry as Shizuo surged up and flipped their positions, a wild animal pouncing on the prey who had dared to rest on his chest. 

"Watch it, Flea. I behave for you, that's all. You've never tamed me." 

"Just bribed you into civility with treats, is that it?" Izaya asked, grinning. Shizuo's eyes flashed dangerously, but the curve of his expression was tender. 

"I get more out of it than the sweets," he rumbled, then swooped in and mashed his lips to Izaya's in an intense, chocolatey kiss. The man beneath him responded enthusiastically, reaching up to wrap his arms around Shizuo's shoulders and grinding his hips upward before pulling back. 

"I hate that taste," he muttered, licking a stay bit of chocolate off his lower lip. Then, with a wicked grin, he added, "But I love you," as he reignited the kiss. Shizuo growled happily, lowering himself further to the bed and ravishing Izaya's mouth with tongue and teeth and hungry lips. 

"Love you too, Izaya," he rasped. "That's why I put up with your _shit_. 

"That, and the chocolate."

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks so much for reading! I hope you guys enjoyed~ 
> 
> Comments and kudos are the reason for my existence, and notes on [the tumblr version](http://niaowrites.tumblr.com/post/142822729998/aroma-of-flea) are always very much appreciated!


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